Rare Native American pendant found as crew digs Ohio trench

CINCINNATI (AP) — A rare Native American pendant dating to the fifth century has been discovered by a crew doing utility work in southwest Ohio.

The suburban Cincinnati village of Newtown and the Cincinnati Museum Center say a shell pendant called a gorget (GOR'-jit) was recently found amid Native American human remains and artifacts uncovered while a crew dug a trench. The decorative pendant is engraved with an unidentified animal.

Archaeologists hope studying the pendant will teach them more about the early portion of the late Woodland period and the people who lived in the area.

An archaeology curator at the museum says gorgets with animal depictions are rare and there are only about eight of that style and period in the United States.